You’re doing everything right and still feeling behind. In this profession, that’s not a mood. It’s exposure.
I’m a practicing attorney and a court-appointed Guardian ad Litem in North Carolina incompetency proceedings. I also coach ten attorneys at a time, one to one.
The Guardian ad Litem work puts me in rooms where someone is about to lose the right to decide where they live. The coaching puts me with lawyers who are still deciding everything for everyone else, and running out of themselves doing it. They are more related than they look.
The work at the center of my practice
Guardian ad Litem
When a court questions whether an adult can still manage their own life, that person stands to lose the right to decide where they live, how they spend their money, who is allowed to see them.
Someone has to sit with that person, listen past the diagnosis, and tell the court the truth about what they actually need. I’m appointed to do that in North Carolina incompetency and guardianship proceedings under Chapter 35A. As of August 2026 I am appointed in four active matters — this is current casework, not a credential.
More about the Guardian ad Litem work →One to one
Coaching for attorneys
You read the same paragraph four times before it goes out. You’ve quietly stopped scheduling anything that matters after 3pm. There’s a matter you carry to bed.
You’re doing the work well enough that nobody has noticed, which is its own kind of alone. I work with attorneys on what that is actually costing — in judgment, in attention, in the advice a client didn’t get because there wasn’t any left.
I work with ten attorneys at a time, one to one. Openings come up through the year.
As of August 2026: two openings for an immediate start, two more in Q4.
Where you can hear me
8 September, 12pm Eastern — Bhāvanā Learning Group
An open working session on the ethics of using AI in practice: consent, privacy, transparency, and who carries the risk when the tool gets it wrong. I bring a real scenario rather than a set of answers, and the room works it.
The room is coaches rather than lawyers — but they are the questions our profession is going to have to answer too, and sooner than most of us would like.
Details and registration →For the record
NAWL coach · Koa Counsel coach · HOSA Institute · JD, PCC, PMP · Admitted in California and North Carolina · Be Hopeful, Be Strong, Be Brave, Be Curious (Wiley, 2024) · Be a Project Motivator (Berrett-Koehler, 2018) · Five LinkedIn Learning courses, 176,000+ learners
Get in touch
Coaching
If one of the openings is for you, book a twenty-minute conversation — or email me and tell me what’s going on.
Guardian ad Litem
Attorneys and clerks working in this area are welcome to get in touch about a matter.
I speak through the HOSA Institute — Shannon Eastman’s Human Operating System Architecture work. Inquiries are welcome at RuthPearce@allellc.org. I don’t keep a calendar or a topic list.